Jersey Supplement (From 3Rd June 2019)
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Life in the United Kingdom Jersey Supplement (from 3rd June 2019) A Guide for New Residents Please note that the Citizenship test in Jersey is based on: • the entire contents of this Jersey Supplement and • the entire contents of the ‘LIFE IN THE UNITED KINGDOM: A Guide for New Residents”. A copy of the Life In The UK book (ISBN 9780113413409) may be obtained from bookstores, online retailers or The Stationary Office http://www.tsoshop.co.uk/bookstore.asp 1 PART 1 THE ISLAND OF JERSEY – A BRIEF HISTORY The earliest evidence of human activity in the Island comes from about a quarter of a million years ago, when bands of Palaeolithic (old Stone Age) hunters moved through the area, following herds of mammoth. There are two cave sites, at La Cotte de St Brelade and La Cotte à le Chèvre, which tell us the story of these early days. However, people only really settled at about the time Jersey became an island – about 7,000 years ago, when the water from the melting Arctic ice caps eventually flooded over the low-lying plains between what is now Jersey and France. This was the beginning of the Neolithic period, or new Stone Age, and it was then that the first farmers began to settle. The most obvious evidence from this time are their religious sites – the tombs known as dolmens – that can be seen around the Island, the biggest and most spectacular being at La Hougue Bie. At this time Jersey’s main links were with the people who lived around the St Malo region of France, and by the time the Romans moved into the region, just over 2,000 years ago, the Island population was probably part of the Coriosolites tribe. When Jersey became part of the Roman world, it was called ‘Andium’ or ‘Angia’. After the Roman Empire collapsed in the 5th century AD, northwest Europe entered into a period that is sometimes referred to as the Dark Ages. It is difficult to get any idea of what it was like to live in Jersey for a period of several hundred years because so few documents have survived. Some are in England and France but none are in the Island. We know a few names and dates, but not what the Island was called and almost nothing about the lives of the people. Christianity It is believed that a missionary, St Marculf, converted the Islanders to Christianity in about AD 538, and by the middle of the 6th century religious men like St Helier were living in the Island. In the 7th and 8th centuries monastic communities were set up on the islet of St Helier and on L'Ile Agois on the north coast. At the beginning of the 9th century, when the French ruler Charlemagne attempted to impose his authority, the Channel Islands were included in the diocese of Coutances in Normandy. This link continued until the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century, when it became part of the diocese of Winchester. Vikings After two or three centuries of chaos, new states began to emerge from the tribal society of Europe. By the middle of the 9th century, the dukes of Brittany gained control of the Cotentin peninsula and the Channel Islands; however, at the same time, Vikings were subjecting northern Europe to raids from Norway and Denmark, including the Channel Islands. They settled on the Brittany coast and gave the Island a name –‘Jersoi 2 933: The Normans The picture of the past becomes clearer after AD933 when William Longsword (the son of a Viking adventurer), the second Duke of Normandy, annexed the Channel Islands. Jersey was firmly in the Norman world. The local language, Jèrriais, is one of the dialects of western Normandy that shares the same roots as the Norman- French spoken by William the Conqueror, and it was the everyday language of the Island until the 20th century. The Duke divided the Island up into land holdings called fiefs and gave them to his followers in return for certain services. These tenants of the Duke were called seigneurs, who in turn granted land to their followers, again in return for services. In 1066 the seventh Duke of Normandy (William II of Normandy) defeated King Harold of England in the Battle at Hastings and became King William I of England. This was the foundation of the Island's constitutional link with England. Under Norman rule, in 1155, an abbey was established on the islet where Elizabeth Castle now stands, it is believed to have replaced an earlier monastery dedicated to St Helier. The abbey must have been the grandest building in Jersey and remained the Island’s most important religious site until the Reformation and the suppression of the monasteries in 1540 by King Henry VIII. Parts of the building survived until the 18th century. 1204: The Separation of Normandy and England For more than 130 years the Channel Islands were a peaceful backwater, ruled by the Dukes of Normandy. But when King Philippe II of France regained control of Normandy in 1204, the Islands remained loyal to their Duke, King John of England. They became an outpost of the English Crown within sight of the enemy coast. A main form of defence, Mont Orgueil (Gorey Castle) was built. The Islanders became skilled in exploiting their position to gain political and economic concessions from the English Crown, but they paid a price. The French constantly attacked Jersey shipping, and the Island was sometimes used as a pawn in international politics. For example, during the Wars of the Roses in England, the Queen (Margaret of Anjou, the wife of Henry VI) apparently planned to sell the Islands to the French in return for their support for the Lancastrian cause. The French occupation lasted for seven years before the Yorkist fleet captured Mont Orgueil and liberated the Island in 1468. By the time the Henry VII became king in 1485, the Channel Islands, which had had their own Bailiffs since the 13th century, were each given their own Governor. The Bailiwicks of Jersey and Guernsey became two distinct political entities. RELIGION The religious affiliations of the Islanders played an important part in the social and political scene from the coming of Christianity in the 6th century until the end of the 19th century. 3 The Reformation The Channel Islands were part of the diocese of Coutances until 1569 when, following the English church's break with Rome, the Islands were transferred to the diocese of Winchester. The Reformation had a profound effect in Jersey. The Island took the French Calvinist form of Protestantism - because of the availability of Bible and Prayer Books in French and of French-speaking preachers. However, the English Crown imposed Anglicanism in the 1620s. Methodism The religious monopoly of the Church of England was challenged at the end of the 18th century when fishermen returning from Newfoundland brought Methodism with them. John Wesley visited the Island in 1787, and Methodism played an important role in the Island thereafter. Catholicism Catholicism was made illegal in the Island after the Reformation, but in the 1790s there was a sudden influx of Roman Catholic refugees from the Revolution in France. The refugees were allowed to hold services, but not allowed to make converts. In the 1830s and 40s there was an influx of Irish labourers who came to work on the major building projects of the time - including the new harbour. This added English speaking Catholics to the population. There was a further wave of Catholic incomers when teaching and nursing orders – the De La Salle brothers, the Jesuits, and the Little Sisters of the Poor – sought refuge from anticlericalism in France at the end of the century. THE CIVIL WAR Jersey became embroiled in the 17th-century English Civil War, which for two decades dominated politics in the Island and intruded into everyday life. Divided loyalties After the outbreak of war in 1642, most Islanders were sympathetic to the parliamentarian cause. This may have been through conviction or widespread resentment of the de Carteret family, who controlled the Island on behalf of the English king. Sir George Carteret, who was Lieutenant Governor and Bailiff, ran a privateering fleet out of St Aubin, which raised a fortune for the Royalists. In response to Carteret's activities, the Parliamentarians despatched an invasion force to the Island in 1651. Carteret and his men retreated to Elizabeth Castle, where they were finally forced to surrender after being bombarded from the town. A harshly puritanical regime now governed the Island until the restoration of the monarchy in 1660. 4 A Royal refugee For a few months in 1646 the Prince of Wales, the future Charles II, sought refuge in the Island and was lodged in the Governor's House at Elizabeth Castle. After the execution of Charles 1 in 1649, Jersey was the first place to proclaim his son King. A few months later Charles returned with his brother, the Duke of York (the future King James II). Although he was now a king in exile, Charles was very short of money and his stay was a financial burden on the Island. During the 1630s Charles I imprisoned William Prynne, the puritan pamphleteer, in Mont Orgueil. In the 1650s the castle became the prison of Royalist sympathisers. After the Restoration, five of the regicides who signed the warrant for the execution of Charles were confined in the castle. In recognition for his loyalty during the Civil War, Charles II gave George Carteret a tract of land in North America, which became known as New Jersey.